Horticultural Centre of the Pacific - a regular haunt

The Horticultural Centre of the Pacific is many things and there are many reasons to visit. Ron and I have been members from the first year we arrived on the island and we continue to visit for different reasons.

This visit focused on studying the Butterfly and Insect beds. I was looking for plant ideas for the Water Drop Insectary and Feather Bird Haven hugelkultur beds in our Backyard project

Hmmm... there is a possibility - Amaranth - red to attract hummingbirds, seeds for fall bird feed and it is a dye plant. I am particularly interested in multi-functioning plants.

The Butterfly and Insect bed is right next to the Plant Sale Centre. I whipped out of my bag my plant lists, gave one sheet to Ron and we searched for wanted plants. There was nothing that day but next visit I may find enough to fill the car.

Since I have been building a number of different types of stone walls for the Backyard Project I have been noticing stone walls everywhere. This is one of my local favourites.

We stopped in for a drink at Charlotte and the Quail Cafe before leaving knowing we would be back for the upcoming Fall Plant Sale.

Nyonya Baba Culture in the Straits of Malacca - Traditional Garments

Georgetown, the old part of Penang, is a well-preserved UNESCO World Heritage Site. There one can explore a unique culture that began in the 15th century when the Straits of Malacca was one of the busiest shipping routes in the world. Chinese migrated from southern China and settled up and down the Malay coast and into Indonesia. They married the local Malays and over time developed a distinct culture reflected in their houses, clothing, customs and cooking - the Nyonya-Baba culture. Here is a link to a Nyonya's blog where she explains her origins.

The above image is outside an award winning restored Nyonya Baba mansion in Georgetown. It shows the Baba (the man) in typical Western formal men's dress of the day while the Nyonya (the woman) wears the traditional garments of her culture.

An elaborately embroidered blouse is worn over a wrapped sarong.

The sheer fabric is silk crepe or Swiss lawn embroidered with silk thread in satin stitch and long and short stitch. The area around the hips is edged in buttonhole stitch before the centres were cut out to make intricate organic patterns. The blouse is secured with 3 to 5 elaborate, jewel-encrusted pins.

The fitted shape with the long front is typical. It certainly emphasised the wearer's main role in life - to produce heirs.

However, when the woman turns 60, after 5 cycles through the Chinese horoscope, she refits her wardrobe with simpler more boxy garments usually made in heavier more opaque fabrics. 

The under garment has a starched raised collar like the stay of a men's shirt and it is held together with gold studs as found on 19th century western men's formal wear. This shift to clothing elements normally worn by males is interesting. In this matriarchal society, as she ages and becomes a grandmother the woman's role changes from child bearer to being head of her family.  

She still wears her costly pins, kersang, to show her family's position in society. The Nyonya line began with a Malay born woman who owned the land and passed ownership on to her daughters, giving them long-lasting and legal authority. At the same time, the Chinese-born immigrant Baba set up the business and if  he was successful brought wealth to the family - a powerful combination.

A 1930s matron's/grandmother's over garment made from apple green embroidered flowers on lavender Swiss organdy. The 3 pins are circles covered with gold and rubies.

The starched collar of the under garment has gold studs.

A Nyonya Matriarch

The wealthy Nyonyas were expected to master the skills essential for finding a good husband - an effective beauty regime, how to behave in public, and how to run a household. 

Above is a painting on the side of a Georgetown building of 3 Nyonyas having afternoon tea.

In several museums, I did notice it seemed pretty important also to learn how to master bead embroidery because one was expected to make one's own bridal shoes.

Here is a mother teaching her daughter to bead. The daughter's unmarried status is evident by her side-buns hair style. Her married mother wears her hair in a single high bun. Gold, silver and jewelled hair pins, Cucuk Sanggul, are worn in the buns. 

Bead-embroidered shoe fronts still in the frame.

A pair of velvet beaded bridal shoes, embroidered with phoenixes and peonies, made sometime before the 1930s.

A pair of beaded pink and green check bridal shoes made in the 1920s or 1930s. 

This culture was very open to new ideas and trends. Trade ships brought the latest commodities and luxuries from around the world and the wealthy travelled to other countries. Evidence of this can be seen in the Art Deco influenced design this modern bride worked on her beaded shoes compared with the more traditional floral design seen displayed under the shoes.

I must say my family was very patient as I absorbed and documented what we saw in the museums we visited. They would even come and find me if they saw something they thought I might be interested in. I am so fortunate to be fully supported by my family in what I do. 

Studio Sewing Centre

While making pillow covers from molas, I also used the Sewing Centre.

View from the front door looking at the Project Table and Design Wall.

The Sewing Centre is to the right.

The Sewing Centre is basically the same setup I had in my old studio. It worked and I couldn't come up with a better solution until I had worked in this new space for a while.

The sewing table was a daughter's desk I seconded when she left home. It is large and works well.

For my birthday, I have asked for a new sewing chair. It was a used chair when I got it and I have recovered it twice, but now the foam is disintegrating. I need a chair in a desk area I am setting up in the house so this one can go there.

In an otherwise dead corner under the table is a tiered basket on wheels with all of the tools and equipment for sewing.

I like old 50s to 70s government issue furniture. It is usually well worn and very functional. This old map cabinet is where I sort and store stabilisers only a chair swivel away from the sewing table

A 2nd table holds the serger/overlocker. It can easily be moved to the top of the stabiliser/map cabinet when I need to work on the embellisher. They are both light machine and easy to lift into place. I don't use them as often so it wasn't worth the real-estate to give them each a table.

The one chair works with both tables.

Over the cabinet is a window with a view of the forest. It lets in soft south easterly light and keeps me in touch with what is happening outside.

One thing I have been disappointed with is 2 birds have flown into the front windows of the studio. I had thought the lower porch roof would stop them from thinking it was a place to fly through. Hopefully, once the plantings in front of the studio are in this will happen a lot less.

From the Sewing Centre, I walk along the design wall to the back of the Project Table to shelves with boxes of machine threads. No natural light can reach them so they are protected from fading and premature ageing. 

Mola - detail

The old Sewing Centre still works in its new location so I guess I won't be changing anything in the near future. But I will continue to look out for design ideas to improve the space.

Studio Design: Pattern Language #134 Zen View & Keystone Species

Pattern Language #134 'If there is a beautiful view, don't spoil it by building huge windows that gape incessantly at it. Instead, put the windows which look onto the view at places of transition - along paths, in hallways, in entryways, on stairs, between rooms.

If the view window is correctly placed, people will see a glimpse of the distant view as they come up to the window or pass it: but the view is never visible from the places where people stay.'

The Green Shed has two Zen windows, one either side of the design wall. Jonathan Aitken, our architect, did a great job in locating them. The project table and print table are mostly kept (they are on wheels) in front of the design wall. As I work and walk around the tables I catch glimpses of forest views. A glimpse is enough to keep me connected to the outside without being a distraction from the work in hand. 

Not long after I moved in I was distracted by a familiar knocking sound. Curiosity made me go up to the nearest Zen window.

A Pileated woodpecker was at work on a tree we hoped would become a wildlife tree. 

The tree had shown signs of decline after the nearby 12-year-old septic field was keeping its roots too wet. Douglas-fir like to spend most of the year with dry feet. Several of its neighbours had blown over during winter storms. We didn't want this one to fall on the studio so it got cut down before it fell down. 

The knowledgeable lumberjack left a 20-foot high stump and roughened up the top with his chain sawn. We hoped the tree was large enough for the fauna to think it was an ideal wildlife tree. 

I was so delighted when I heard that knocking sound. I knew what it meant.

This bird had decided the tree was suitable to work on. Above right you can see their characteristic rectangular shaped hole which opens up the tree to other birds and insects as a food source and nesting sites. The hole gives access to fungus colonies that soften and rot the wood. Then the next succession of smaller birds can work on making nest sites and foraging for food.

It is for these and many other reasons the Piliated woodpecker is a Douglas-fir forest keystone species.

 Pileated woodpecker - Keystone Habit Modifier

Click the above link to read a scientific examination of the importance of this bird for the wellbeing of the Coastal Douglas-fir ecosystem.

Vancouver Island Circumnavigation - What I did this Summer

This summer Ron and I went on a big expedition. We explored the island we live on.  Travelling on our sailboat we took a month to circumnavigate Vancouver  Island.

We saw many beautiful sights including much wildlife: orcas, dolphins, sea lions, whales, sea otters, seals, bears, and birds - none of which I was able to capture adequately with  my point 'n' shoot camera.

I got lots of knitting time in. I read most of the books I stowed on board.

I did lots of quick sketches to make me really see what I was looking at.

My sketchbook is full of inspiration and ideas for future works which will keep me busy in my studio over winter.

More Bird Inspiration - From Our Back Yard

Oh oh, not this gal. She chases the birds away. She had 5 babies this spring.

I have been noticing birds a lot since the spring. 

Birds have always featured prominently in most cultures - in myths and legends.

Birds are health indicators of our natural environment. 

We often first notice a change in the seasons when observing bird behaviour.

In my up coming work I want to explore the history and ideas associated with the birds I see outside my studio window. 

Desolation Sound Inspiration

Our summer holiday this year was spent sailing along the Pacific North West coast and on up into Desolation Sound

I saw lots of inspiring land-seascapes

But I think I feel a bird series coming on

Basilique Saint-Anne-de-Beaupre, Quebec

During Articulation's study week in Quebec we visited many churches but this was my favourite.
The Christian religion and the Bible are not big on acknowledging our natural environment.
Saint Anne's is different.

The ceilings are covered in mosaics with small ecological motifs.

I added more 'Tree Of Life' motifs to my collection.

Unlike most Christian churches, females feature prominently.
 A ceiling mosaic: working in the fields during the day, sitting by the fire at night.
There are lots of images of women with birds and flowers.

Dancing with abandon - on a church floor!

The zodiac!
The triangle in the 2D repeating pattern is an ancient female symbol.

A very beautiful, subtle decoration is carved into the ends of the wooden pews.
There is that triangle again, 

Every pew has a different animal or bird and a flower in a triangle.

There must have been several hundred of them.
'Saint Anne's is the oldest pilgrimage site in North America, beginning in 1658 as a shrine to the patron saint of Quebec.'
After several fires the present building was started in 1923.
If you click on the blue name of this post you will see a short video of the interior. Thanks Orangethingy for sharing.